Book Review: Release by Patrick Ness

An American small town and Religion, homosexuality, drugs and the soon to be adult individuals. That is Patrick Ness's Release. The story is a day in Adam Thorn's life and starts with him waking up to a bright morning. On one side, we have Adam, a seventeen-year old boy who is gay, and on another we have spirit of the girl who was murdered a few days before.

This day is different for Adam than others as he is to bid final farewell to his ex-boyfriend who is leaving town. Adam is battling with an emotional turmoil, his past, present and his fear of the future. On the same day, the spirit of a young girl, killed by her boyfriend, also latches on to the Queen spirit and enters the town where she moves around with no apparent direction.

Patrick Ness has very carefully painted the picture of conservative parents who are unable to accept their son as he is. His father’s words, “You don’t know how much I work to love you” are heartbreaking to say the least.

There are some great quotes through the book and as a reader, you can feel all that Adam goes through in this day. Adam’s love life, his friendship with Angela, his job, his brother and parents’ attitude towards him all are laid bare in front of him on this particular day.

Patrick Ness has also added some paranormal with the parallel story of the young girl and her quest for release through revenge.

This was my first book by the writer and I liked his writing. There are no convoluted sequences and everything is as it is. There are no grand promises of the future and everything ends like a normal day where one boy finds his release.

Book Review: Rafflesia The Banished Princess

Rafflesia The Banished Princess by Gautam

Apurva Sharma, Appu is a introvert, shy man who has very few close friends and is battling with the demons of his past and his bad luck that seems to be following him wherever he goes. We first meet him at Leeuwarden, The Netherlands where he is working on a project for his company. The story moves between present day and his growing up days simultaneously. We get to see a young Appu who is drawn by nature, flowers and animals. He is full of innocence and one of his first best friends is Pinki who is very protective of him even at the age of  five. We are told later that their friendship is over after Pinki's father moves away somewhere else.

As he grows up, he meets Rahul, his father's best friend's son and they form a deep bond like brothers which stays with them all through life's troubles. Appu also forges deep bond with a few colleagues. He is closest to Misha, his office colleague and Sujata, wife of his friend and colleague, Jeet. Appu is a very sensitive boy right from the time he was young and his struggles with poverty and bad luck make him extremely introvert.

Another character is Rahul, Appu's best friend. He is an exuberant person who faces the harsh truth of life young when his mother commits suicide and a few years later his father remarries. Rahul and Appu have a bond that bring tears in the eyes of everyone around them. Rest of the story is about Appu, his struggles in life from an early age due to his family's financial condition, finding a good job, getting married and then another shock for him. We also get a glimpse of the happiness life can have for him but can he step ahead and embrace it?

The characters are good, well presented but the story takes time to pick up and loses momentum a few times. You feel somewhat lost at times but the author makes a good comeback in the later part of the story. Although one can say that all bad things seem to happen to Appu but his resilience is remarkable. The only question that remains is that why wouldn't Appu confide any of his feelings in his best friend? That part is a little inexplicable because he himself is hurt when Rahul didn't confide in him about his therapy for depression.

The biggest problem with the book is its editing. There are many mistakes, grammatical and printing. If that were corrected, this could have been a better novel. The author, Gautam has written a good story which is worth a read. He is not trying to paint a rosy picture of poverty or the hardships of his characters' life and that really works in favour of the book. There are some great moments and the open ending is also something different and good.

P.S. I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Book Review: Unns- The Captivation

Unns- The captivation by Sapan Saxena traces the life of Atharva Rathod and his experience with love and life. The story starts with school students discussing their plans for last year of school and one of these students is our protagonist, Atharva Rathod. In his last year at school, he falls in love with Meher Qasim, a fellow classmate who after a few months breaks his heart under pressure from her parents. Atharva, broken hearted never gets over her.

Years later, Athatva now a RAW agent goes to Germany on a secret mission where he meets Meher and all his love and feelings that have been bottled up inside him for fifteen years come up again. He is saddened again by the fact that she has moved on in life so easily and does not love him the way he still loves her. His life suddenly takes a drastic turn for worse as his mission fails and he is jailed for leaking defence information to enemy country. And then we see Atharva again after his jail term and follow his life ahead.

This is a fast paced story of unrequited love and passion and circumstances that always seem to be against Atharva. The author has created characters that have their own follies but are also passionate. Atharva is a person who falls in love passionately and never gives up on his first true love. Even after years of separation, he remembers everything she had ever said to him.

This is a book that never bores you, the story keeps moving on with Atharva balancing between his secret mission and trying to understand Meher again and how the events of Meher's life change her from the sweet girl that she was when Atharva had first met her.

The author has written a nice, easy story with good suspense and the ending has also been written well. It is fast paced but never rushed so the lead characters have been given ample space to shine. Many a times as a reader you will find yourself hoping that Atharva gets his love back and that they live happily ever after. But whether that happens or not, is something you can read Unns and find out for yourself.

P.S. I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Book review: A Walk in the Rain

A Walk in the Rain by Udai Yadla is a story of Sunny, a system programmer by profession, who spends all his free time musing about his long lost friend Sandhya who he calls Sandy and Saloni, a prostitute by profession, thrown into this big bad world by her uncle, Hari. Their paths meet when Sunny is dragged by his friend Imran to the brothel where Saloni works. An altercation ensues between Sunny and Hari and in the fight Hari kills Imran and runs away. Saloni promises Sunny that she can help him find Hari if he pays her. They then embark on a road trip to find Hari and rest of the story is their journey towards their destination where one hopes to find vengeance and another money.

The story is all about Sunny and his pre-conceived judgement about Saloni because of who she is and Saloni who despite being a prostitute does not let go of her self respect. She fully understands his prejudice towards her but still keeps her head held high despite the situation she is in. There are a few sub plots thrown in like another prostitute called Pooja, who is also Saloni's best friend.

The premise, though very good is not very well presented and the narration gets redundant most of the time. The mix up of tenses represent bad English and hence break the flow quite a lot. There are times when the use of pronouns can confuse a reader and that is where the writing could have been made better. What the novel needed was a good editing and maybe should have been curtailed by a few pages to give it a more sleek reading. Also, the backdrop of Saloni's life and her feelings should have been explored more instead of focusing so much on Sunny's prejudiced musings. Saloni had a story with potential to be a tear jerker but it was not explored enough.

A Walk in the Rain is a fine story which should have been great but for the grammar and length.

P.S. I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Book Review: Finding Juliet by Toffee

There are stories that are good and there are those that are bad. Then, there are those that are brilliantly written and some that are not so well written. Finding Juliet by Toffee is a story that is almost good but as a reader you wish that it was presented in a better way.

We follow the story of Arjun, the protagonist, from his school days to corporate world and all through he is only worried about finding the prettiest girl in town and laying her. He maybe looking for his Juliet but acts more like a Roadside Romeo with no control over his raging hormones or his ego. So he somehow manages to fall in love within minutes of seeing a girl and needless to say, goes through one too many heartbreaks and every time his ego takes a beating.

He acts all clueless about girls and finds a mentor in his colleague, Krish after several heartbreaks and changes into someone who can impress any girl. But the million dollar question: does he find his Juliet? That you will have to read and find out for yourself. (Can't spoil someone's hard work now, can I?)

The writer has a clear idea where he wants to take the story but first person narration makes it more like a diary than a novel. Use of slangs, shortened words, useless phrases could have been avoided. The flow breaks sometimes and getting your focus back to Arjun requires some effort. The book may be enjoyed by those in their early teens.

P.S. I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Someone to Love: Book Review

“Kuku and the Crow”. Two people, best friends since they were kids. One hyper-emotional, the other calm. Two friends who in one day lost a lot when they had almost all.

Someone to Love by Ruchita Misra is a story about Atharv and Koyal who have been friends since their childhood. Their bond runs so deep that they can understand each other's unspoken words and Atharv always knows when Koyal is in distress, even when time-zones separate them. Life takes a drastic turn and they find themselves on different paths with so much hatred that they can't seem to move beyond it. Was it just friendship between them or love? What really happened that affected their perfect friendship? Does Koyal find someone to love? All the answers unfold as the story progresses.

The individual struggles of both protagonists have been painted well. Specially Koyal's plight and her struggles in life have been well portrayed. The story starts with a new bride giving herself up in her marriage and from there on her life becomes a continuous nightmare and she seems to have resigned herself to it. In the first part, the story moves between Koyal’s current nightmarish life and her childhood which was almost perfect with her best friend Atharv in it. We are not told until the end as to what happened that made Koyal so full of anger that she destroyed her life and a part of Atharv.

The author has built a sweet story which is neither too mushy nor too dark. It is easy to sympathise with them both but the characters could have been given more depth. As a reader, sometimes you wish there was something more, maybe some more feeling in the words and there are too many philosophical lines which could have been done away with. A good enough book to be read over a lazy weekend.

P.S. I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.